How to use Instagram - The extreme beginners tutorial

This tutorial is for anyone who wants to use Instagram but doesn’t know how to use it or where to get started. Consider this tutorial for extreme beginners. If you are already using Instagram, this tutorial might be too basic for you.

First, if you don’t already have one you’ll need to create an Instagram account. You can do that by logging into Instagram. When you do you’ll see a screen like this:

Instagram is a little quirky in the sense that you can create and check your account from your computer but you cannot post photographs from your computer. To use it, you will need to download the free app – from one of the app stores circled in yellow in the photograph above- onto your cell phone or tablet. Once you’ve downloaded the app and created an account you’ll need to login into the app to continue.

Here’s what the login screen looks like:

After you login, you should see this screen:

As you can see, Instagram will make suggestions for who you can follow. It’s up to you what you want to do.

Now let’s go over some of the features. The first thing you’ll want to do is build your profile. To access your profile, click on the little person – circled in yellow in the photo below.

This is the screen you’ll see:

Click on the “Edit Profile,” button to write your profile and post your website or blog.

Once you’ve edited your profile, click either the “Submit” button at the bottom of your computer screen or the check mark on the right side of your cell phone screen to save it.

After you’ve saved your profile, it will take you to your profile screen (the screen that new followers will see.)

Now that your profile is all set up you’re ready to post your first photograph.

On the bottom of your cell phone or tablet screen, look for the plus symbol – in the above photo it’s circled in yellow.

The next screen will look similar to this:

I can’t vouch for all cell phones but on my cell phone, it automatically takes me to the photo gallery on my cell phone. If you have a picture saved to a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox, you can access that file by clicking on the down arrow next to “Gallery” located at the top left corner of the screen. (See above photo.) On my phone, I have to select “Other,” in order to access my cloud service. FYI – this will only work if you have the DropBox or Google Drive cloud apps downloaded to your phone!!!

In most cases, the picture you’ll want to post is one that is already on your phone. So the most recent picture you captured will pop up first:

As you can see from the above photo, the text on the picture is cut off. To change the shape of the photo from a square to a rectangle, click the button on the far left that looks like two partial triangles (circled in yellow below.)

Now our picture looks like this:

Click the “Next button” – upper right hand corner – to continue.

The next screen you’ll see gives you the option of adding different filters for your photo. Feel free to scroll through and play with them. Filters are not a requirement. But after you choose what you want, click the “Next” button – upper right hand corner – to continue.

This is where you can add a caption to your photo. A lot of people are using Instagram as a blogging platform and share fun anecdotes regarding their photos. Some people just share photos with no explanation. What you choose to do is entirely up to you.

This is also where you can tag other Instagram users and share your Instagram photo to Facebook, Twitter, or Tumbler. Just tap on the circle located to the right of these platforms and a screen will pop up allowing you to connect your Instagram account to these platforms. Please note – it’s not automatic. You will have to select these platforms each time you post a photo if you want to share them.

Once you’ve input your caption and selected the desired platforms to cross share the photo with, click “Share,” located in the upper right hand corner.